High-level collaboration between hackers and the government helped Taiwan to become the darling of the global civic tech community. But projects like vTaiwan still struggle to scale up nation-wide, and increase their scope outside digital economy issues.

Taiwan has long seen allies switch ties to Beijing, but now there are fears of a brain drain to the mainland. Cross-strait tensions have soared since China-sceptic Tsai Ing-wen took power in Taipei la...